= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
AshwinV comments on The Virtue of Narrowness - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (61)
Well I don't know about "super intelligent", but modern corporations do seem remarkably like "unfriendly AI" (as defined in the Sequences). They have a very simplified utility function (shareholder value) and tend to maximize it at the expense of all rival human values. They are also very powerful and potential immortal.
The only open question is how intelligent they actually are. The naive answer is that any corporation is at least as intelligent as its most intelligent employee; but anyone who has actually worked for a modern corporation will know just how far from the truth this is. As stupid as their stupidest manager is maybe closer to the truth. So there's some hope there.
I'm sure I'm not the first on LW to draw this parallel...
What about this version:
The modern corporation is as intelligent as its leader, but has a learning/doing disability in areas such as __ {fill in areas looked after by least intelligent employees who have a free hand in decision making in those areas}.
I know this isnt a perfect version, but I feel that some thought needs to go into judging the performance ability of different corporations.
I dont think they resemble anything like an AI, or anyhting at all in the sense in which the phrase AI was originally coined, but it is sometimes useful to think of corporations as people.
Legally speaking companies are treated as juristic people. This is true of my jurisdiction and my guess that it is so for most.